It's not too late for Mandel to make his campaign more honest

It seems every day is a bad news day for Josh Mandel. On Monday, the Akron Beacon Journal whacked the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in an editorial, accusing him of running a smarmy campaign.

It seems every day is a bad news day for Josh Mandel.

On Monday, the Akron Beacon Journal whacked the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in an editorial, accusing him of running a smarmy campaign.

On Tuesday, the Plain Dealer editorial page piled on, saying: “For someone who aggressively markets himself as a spit-and-polish Marine, (Mandel) surely seems to have a powerful urge to wallow in the mud of politics.”

Perhaps these editorials — and the avalanche of unfavorable news stories Mandel has received — won’t make a whit of difference in his bid to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

In the age of digital media, the thinking in some political circles is that newspaper stories and editorials have lost their impact, supplanted by television ads and the amazing opportunities for campaigns to connect directly with voters via the Internet.

Robert T. Bennett, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, said this appears to be the way Mandel is thinking.

“He’s using social media and the new communication tools and I don’t think he depends a great deal on visiting editorial boards or talking with the print media,” Bennett said.

Mandel also is benefitting tremendously from TV ads financed by a number of sympathetic third-party groups.

So far, these groups, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS, have spent at least $8.3 million on attack ads against Brown, according to a Politico story, which said the outside spending is keeping the “blunder-prone” Mandel “in the game.”

The withering attacks have eroded Brown’s double-digit lead to mid-single digits, according to polls.

The Brown campaign has complained vociferously about the special-interest groups doing dirty work for Mandel.

But Brown hasn’t been helpless against the onslaught: Third-party groups supporting him have aired about $1.7 million worth of ads against Mandel. And Brown’s campaign aide, Justin Barasky, has spent the past year of his life trashing Mandel, feeding some of the unfavorable news stories.

Those stories wouldn’t have been written, however, if Mandel hadn’t repeatedly made himself vulnerable to them. He continually makes statements that are demonstrably unsupported: PolitiFact Ohio evaluated 15 campaign claims made by Mandel and determined that seven of them are mostly false or false, with four being “Pants on Fire” false.

Last week’s editorials blistered Mandel for dredging up Brown’s 26-year-old divorce from his first wife, Larke. The divorce was ugly: Larke filed an affidavit saying she feared for her and their children’s safety “due to (Brown’s) physical violence and abusive nature.” Mandel referred to it in a radio interview, saying Brown was “a real hypocrite” for accusing him of ducking questions about reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act.

Bennett said Mandel was within bounds: “If (Brown’s) out there beating up Josh for being anti-woman, I think (the divorce) is fair game.”

Larke has moved on and has been a strong supporter of her ex-husband’s political career, holding a fundraiser for him in her home as recently as June 16. Brown’s messy divorce was raised in previous campaigns, to no effect. One veteran Ohio Republican campaign consultant who asked not to be named said it was foolish for Mandel to resurrect it.

“Once something like that is vetted through a four-year cycle, it’s done — it’s gone” as an issue, he said, lamenting that the 34-year-old Mandel has surrounded himself with an inexperienced campaign team and is showing his immaturity as a candidate.

John Green, a University of Akron political scientist, agreed: “We’re seeing continuing evidence of Mandel’s inexperience.”

While his campaign might scoff at the impact of negative newspaper stories and editorials, they will take a toll on Mandel’s credibility if they continue, Green said.

“The stories individually may not amount to a whole lot, but if they collectively fill in a narrative, then it can be problematic,” he said. “Those kinds of narratives do travel very effectively on the Internet. I do think there’s a potential problem there.”

Mandel has plenty of time to salvage his credibility as a candidate by waging a more forthright and honest campaign.

Joe Hallett is senior editor at The Dispatch

jhallett@dispatch.com

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